Test. Test. Test.
Everything in business is a test. The good ol' days - writing a business plan, pitching for investment, building out a product for the exact market stated in the business plan, launching the product through a large budget Launch strategy - those days are over.
As an entrepreneur, you should now consider yourself a scientist. Your job now is to run as many tests as possible, with the least amount of expenses to find mass adoption of your product. The tests should start in the ideation phase and shouldn't ever end. The single worst thing you can do now as an entrepreneurial is have one idea and do everything you can think of to bring that specific idea to market. Start with a problem area and test ideas around it.
Test for consumer problems
What problems are present in which you can bring a solution to market? The best businesses solve a problem consumers have (or didn't know they had but now realize life is better with your product). I heard the other day: You cannot just ask consumers what they want - they do not know. But if you observe and test them, their actions will lead you to holes that need to be filled. Inefficiencies will present themselves. Great entrepreneurs see these inefficiencies early.
Test for Product/Market fit
Once a problem is found and a solution has been built, the real work starts. Take it from me, your first attempt will not be the golden fit and you will have to re-align somethings. Call it pivot, call it whatever you want... it will happen. I don't know why we are making such a big deal about pivoting, great entrepreneurs constantly pivot their ideas until they get the right market fit. Ask Edison, he pivoted like 5,000 times...
Test for Business model
How to make money is the question every company must face. I believe this is an area a startup must test early and often. This question should never have just one answer. Small tests on business model, payment options, advertising (I know... I know....) and other methods of creating revenue. It's just a test. Do some A/B testing on a select group on users. Release a payment option to 1% of users and see what happens. You might just discover your next big innovation and create a new billion dollar industry.
Test for Perseverance
Ask any founder of a startup (still running) and they will have hours of talking on the subject of perseverance. The startup experience will test you and your perseverance. Just don't give up. Do anything you can think of to put off the quitting of your vision. Read Delivering Happiness by Zappos Tony Hsieh to get an idea on Perseverance. I had no idea they went through the hell they did with their startup. You need to read this book if you are a founder of an early stage company not knowing if the future is bright or bleak.
Test for leadership
I laid out the importance of brand and company leadership expansively in my last post The One Thing That Separates Apple From Microsoft. Suffice it to say I think this is the most underrated, under-talked about, overlooked but most important aspect of building out your long term brand. You must answer he question: Why are consumers going to want to use my product? Believe it or not, it will be due to the leadership of the company CEO. Test your leadership skills early and often to find the right connection with general consumers.
Test for Funding
Investors don't tell you this, but they are testing you at every stage of the game. First time you meet them at a "social event" they are testing your IQ and your EQ (your social intelligence) to see if you are someone they would even want to take an interest in. Next time when you meet for a pitch, they will test your concept and your perspective on the market. When they don't call you back, they are testing your perseverance. When they give you money, they are testing your ability to turn X into 10X. If you pass that test, you will most likely be able to get money from them anytime thereafter.
I could go on... but I think you get the point. If you thought your tests were over after graduation, think again. They only have just begun. Embrace the test.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Canyon289
With everyone and their mother hating U.S. banks these days, I was surprised to see that it took U.S. financial stocks only a few seconds to recover from their daily plunge on Friday afternoon, right after the Fed announced that bank capital surcharges would be revised down to 2%. Then, I looked at historical data about U.S. banks, and realized that there is actually no reason to be surprised: financial stocks have been down for over three months now, some of them hitting prices close to their level of May 2009. And the fact that bank stocks are underpriced inflates the impact that small pieces of good news can have on their price, making me believe that a respite from the big slump is here, especially for options expiry.
So the question is – how do we know the banks are seriously underpriced?…
See the whole article at SeekingAlpha
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